EXU.EXE
Lady Gaga's artpop is one of the albums of all time.
I was fifteen or something when it first came out. Probably fourteen still because I'm almost certain it came out before my birthday but I can't be assed to go and double-check that right now.
Regardless, listening to it for the first time was one of those formative experiences that's hard to pin down what exactly it did to me but nonetheless there's a clear before the thing and after the thing, and those two points are very much not the same even if the why and how are unclear.
It came at a time for me when the way I went about discovering and listening to music was quite different from the way it is now. Realistically, I knew like maybe ten different artists/bands off the top of my head that I could say I liked, and I'd find out if they had a new album out because I'd see it in the CD display at the local London Drugs (Or the HMV at the mall the next town over every once in a while before they closed down (That store had such a distinct smell and I’ve got no clue what it was)). I did have an iPod but I had to ask my mother to use the family iTunes account- I also had a smartphone and I did at that point know how to rip songs from YouTube to download. I wasn't clueless, but I was utterly paralyzed by the idea that she might ask to look at my phone, see the music, and ask questions or express disapproval at what I was listening to or how I’d gotten it, so I just... Didn't. I don't recall if Spotify had taken off with people my age in our dumpy little hometown yet but it doesn't really matter because once I was aware of it I never used it because it's Canada and data plans were expensive so I couldn't use it anyways.
The point really is that my mom bought us that CD to listen to in the car and at that point in my life buying a new CD was kind of a big deal and an event still. It was exciting. We happened to get this one shortly before a trip across the border to go camping/shopping in Washington.
It was on that car ride that I first listened to ArtPop, end to end, start to finish.
I was a changed person after it.
I can still vividly remember my dad getting pissed off and lost in the dark, struggling to find the right exit in the roundabout while Manicure played. I can remember going through the McDonald's drive through and munching down my 10 piece nuggies n' fries (AND I got rootbeer. If we got take out, I almost never got pop so that was real special) to Marry Jane Holland.
I loved it. I still love it.
I have a hard time articulating what about it I find so good. I just love it. There are no songs I skip on this album.
If I were going to try to guess at why I liked it so much I might say it's because Lady Gaga was one of those ten or so artists I already decided I liked. I don’t think that’s really it though because there have been songs of hers on previous albums I didn’t particularly care for. I liked Joanne, albeit not to the same extent, and I didn’t find myself liking Chromatica at all. So, I don’t think my unending fondness for this album is just me being a lover of Ms.Gaga. I don’t even think I’d say I’m a fan of her as a celebrity because I’ve never really been interested in artists/musicians/actors as personalities to follow outside of the work they create and the projects they’re involved in. I don’t know jack about her and I’m not really interested in her as a person.
I don’t think it’s necessarily that the lyrics really spoke to me in any meaningful way either. I was like... A 9th grader who was almost never left home alone and wasn’t allowed to go anywhere on my own. I didn’t party. I didn’t do much of anything. I was afraid of my own shadow. I wasn’t having sex or doing drugs. I listened to this in the car (and ripped from the CD later on my iPod), not in the club or whatever. I definitely was not the target audience for her music.
I did like the lyrics though. I think Venus is one of my favourites on this album in that department.
I don’t really think I know enough about music to explain why I think this album works so well and is just that good. I don’t know why my first full listen to it was such a profound experience for me. I just know that I really love it.
Apparently, it got pretty mixed reviews when it came out? And that really surprised me. I guess if you don’t like pop/EDM, sure. But I really don’t understand how this one wasn’t more popular than it was. I think more people need to listen to it. Really listen to it. Go for a long-ass drive and let the whole thing play out. Fold a bunch of laundry and then go clean the shower while listening to it. Lay there in the dark and just let it sink in. Something.
I don’t know that it’s one of the best or most profound albums out there, but it’s the first to have had a real impact on me and I think people need to give it a chance. Go listen to Artpop.